Needs Assessment and Evaluation: Wollongong's Aging Community Health

This report presents a needs assessment for the Wollongong community, with a specific focus on the health requirements of individuals aged 55 and above. The analysis begins by examining community characteristics relevant to understanding the health landscape of Wollongong, followed by a discussion of primary and secondary data sources, such as surveys and vital statistics, that assist in evaluating community health. The report then reviews two journal articles to gain insights into the health needs and challenges faced by the aging population. The articles highlight the rise in age-related non-communicable diseases and the impact of musculoskeletal conditions on the quality of life. The report concludes by synthesizing the findings and emphasizing the importance of a comprehensive approach to health promotion and intervention strategies for the Wollongong community.

Running head: PROJECT PLANNING AND EVALUATION AT WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA
Project planning and evaluation at Wollongong, Australia
Name of the student:
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Author Note

1PROJECT PLANNING AND EVALUATION AT WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA
Executive summary
In the following report, an analysis is done on different characteristics of the community of
Wollongong at Australia. For performing this individuals having ages starting from 55 and above are
considered for evaluation. The study demonstrates different primary and secondary sources that are
helpful to understand the healthcare of this community. Lastly, two journal articles are evaluated in
the study for understanding the situation better.

2PROJECT PLANNING AND EVALUATION AT WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA
Table of Contents
1. Introduction:......................................................................................................................................3
2. Discussion on kinds of community characteristics required to consider to analyze the area of
Wollongong:..........................................................................................................................................3
3. Primary and secondary data sources assisting in understanding the community of Wollongong:....4
4. Journals reviews to understand the health necessities of the individuals at Wollongong:................5
5. Conclusion:........................................................................................................................................6
6. References:........................................................................................................................................7

3PROJECT PLANNING AND EVALUATION AT WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA
1. Introduction:
The health promotion is the method to help people to develop on and improve their health.
This has been moving beyond the concentration on behavior towards the broad range of
environmental and social interventions.
The following study makes a discussion on various community characteristics to analyze the
Wollongong Local Australian government sector. Here people of ages 55 and more are considered.
Besides, a single primary and secondary data sources assisting in understanding the community are
demonstrated. Apart from this, two journal articles are reviewed to evaluate the scenario better.
2. Discussion on kinds of community characteristics required to consider to
analyze the area of Wollongong:
The first community characteristics are the “community as target”. This indicates the aim to
generate a healthy environment with the help of systemic changes. This takes place at various
community-wide services and institutions and public policies. Here the status of health for
Wollongong are the main targets of community changes interventions and specific changes that are
thought to be related to health and intended results (Gulliver et al. 2015). The next community
characteristic is the resource. This applies to the health promotion of Wollongong. This is because of
the broadly endorsed belief with a higher degree for the ownership. Apart from this, participation is
important for the sustained success in the health outcomes in population-level (Vines et al. 2015).
Lastly, there is a community-based characteristic is the agent. Though it is linked closely to the
described model, the emphasis here is to respect and reinforce the development capacities, support
and adaption of Wollongong (World Health Organization 2015).

4PROJECT PLANNING AND EVALUATION AT WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA
3. Primary and secondary data sources assisting in understanding the community
of Wollongong:
The primary data are collected here first-hand from the sources of surveys. This is done on
different patients residing at Wollongong. The survey will be meeting the necessities of the people
who have been ageing. Here, people over 55 years are considered to be taking part in the survey.
Here various concerns are considered. This includes the enhancement of knowledge regarding dental
issues, strokes and heart diseases, high blood pressure and various infectious diseases like TB and
hepatitis (Dueñas et al. 2016). For this, the following questions are estimated to be asked.
 How much do you rate the Wollongong as a “healthy community”?
 How can one rate personal health?
 About how frequently and how many years do you go to volunteer your time in community
services?
Besides, the secondary sources various data compilations such as “Vital & Health Statistics” are
considered here. The vital statistics are the method to gather data on the events through civil
registration. There are efforts for developing the quality of the vital statistics. This it is nearly related
to developing of civil registration system at Wollongong. Further, the health statistics are helpful to
understand the key indicators. It is useful to understand the conditions of life at Wollongong
(Randel, German and Ewing 2017). It is helpful to evaluate individual health along with the overall
community. Thus the effect of health on individuals and their activities can be examined for
betterment.

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4. Journals reviews to understand the health necessities of the individuals at
Wollongong:
Jin et al. (2015), has highlighted that the ageing of the population and various derivative has
led to the rise in a non-communicable disease that is age-related. This also involves a financial
burden. To accomplish this aim, various policies are analysed by the authors. Firstly, there is a rise
in funding for development and research. This is directed particularly to ameliorate the degenerative
ageing methods. It is also helpful to widen the productive and healthy lifespan for the present
population. Next, they have highlighted a set of incentives. This is regarding public, academic,
commercial and governmental organizations. It is advantageous in fostering engagement in
development and research. Next, this includes the expanding and establishment of consultation and
coordination of various institutions, programs and structures that is time consuming. This is one
disadvantage of it. These are involved in the analysis of the ageing related education, development
and research in public policy agencies, industries and academia. This takes place at supra-
governmental and governmental levels.
On the other hand, Briggs et al. (2016), has investigated the impaired functioning and
mobility, decreased life quality and persistent pain and mental well-being. They are found to be the
common experiences that are related to various musculoskeletal situations. The impacts and
prevalence of the situations have been rising with ageing. This profound burden is present at
Wollongong. This generates the crisis for the healthy population needing the response of
multisystem. This consists of the musculoskeletal services of health. It is considered as a highly
complicated component.
Further, the article highlights that there has been an emphasis on maintaining an active
lifestyle globally. This is to decrease the effects of diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, cardiovascular

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conditions and effects of obesity. Apart from this, there are various painful musculoskeletal
situations. This, however, has been profoundly restricting the capability of individuals to modify the
lifestyles. Here, many smart strategies are evaluated by the authors. They are beneficial for
addressing the effects of various musculoskeletal situations.
Besides, one of the disadvantage of the method is that some of them are of low costs like
interventions that are primary care-based. However, others are costly and feasible for Wollongong.
At the community, it is vital to include development and reform initiatives. This must involve the
researches and adhere to various principles of developing efficiencies. This is to avoid performing
any harm to the healthcare systems under those settings.
5. Conclusion:
From the above study, a broad array of factors are found. These have been influencing the
health factors of Wollongong. There are various entities in the community that has been sharing
liabilities to develop and maintain health. As the resources of Wollongong are mobilized for the
continuing effort for developing the health, the individuals having ages more than 55 must
understand the values. This must develop and clear and shared vision of what can be gained. Based
on the review the determinants of the health, the forces at Wollongong can influence them.

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6. References:
Beard, H.P.J.R. and Bloom, D.E., 2015. Towards a comprehensive public health response to
population ageing. Lancet (London, England), 385(9968), p.658.
Briggs, A.M., Cross, M.J., Hoy, D.G., Sanchez-Riera, L., Blyth, F.M., Woolf, A.D. and March, L.,
2016. Musculoskeletal health conditions represent a global threat to healthy aging: a report for the
2015 World Health Organization world report on ageing and health. The Gerontologist, 56(suppl_2),
pp.S243-S255.
Dueñas, M., Ojeda, B., Salazar, A., Mico, J.A. and Failde, I., 2016. A review of chronic pain impact
on patients, their social environment and the health care system. Journal of pain research, 9, p.457.
Gulliver, A., Griffiths, K.M., Mackinnon, A., Batterham, P.J. and Stanimirovic, R., 2015. The
mental health of Australian elite athletes. Journal of science and medicine in sport, 18(3), pp.255-
261.
Jin, K., Simpkins, J.W., Ji, X., Leis, M. and Stambler, I., 2015. The critical need to promote research
of aging and aging-related diseases to improve health and longevity of the elderly population. Aging
and disease, 6(1), p.1.
Randel, J., German, T. and Ewing, D., 2017. The ageing and development report: poverty,
independence and the world's older people. Routledge.
Vines, J., Pritchard, G., Wright, P., Olivier, P. and Brittain, K., 2015. An age-old problem:
Examining the discourses of ageing in HCI and strategies for future research. ACM Transactions on
Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 22(1), p.2.
World Health Organization, 2015. World report on ageing and health. World Health Organization.

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